Social Media: Is it Worth Your Time?
What exactly is social media anyway? Some people define it simply as a tool of quick and easy communication. Some say it’s just something to do to pass time. Some people hate it, while others are addicted to it. Personally, I try to stay away from it. From my point of view, social media causes far too many problems for me to be able to enjoy it. Things like cyberbullying, hacking, “sexting”, the spreading of rumors, the lack of privacy, all on top of the fact that it’s just a huge distraction, are all things that cause me to shy away from it. Although most of these things do also exist outside of social media, I believe that social media magnifies and multiplies them significantly. Social media does more bad than good. Social media is also a big tool used by different companies and government organizations to put up advertisements and other posts that are meant to pull them into their collection of supporters. Virtually any social media platform that people go on are filled up and down the pages with advertisements. On top of being just plain annoying, these are often very misleading. Clicking on them can often lead users to places on the Internet that they would not typically want to be. Many of them try to get people to purchase things or tell them that they have won a contest they have not actually even entered in order to draw your attention and gain your support. Depending on the advertisement, some of them can even harm your computer or cell phone. Similar to the issue of false or misleading advertisement, due to Twitter’s 140 character limit on posts, websites like Bit.ly are commonly used to shorten web links. This website causes all links that are shortened by it to look almost exactly the same. Therefore, people can easily post misleading things on Twitter with a link to a harmful website, and the people that see it have no way of knowing where the link will truly go without just clicking on it and finding out. For some of these harmful websites, all it takes is a simply visit and they can download unwanted software, or even attach viruses to your computer’s hard drive (Everett). In an article by Catalin Cosoi in Computer Fraud & Security, an educational journal about the security of people’s information online and through the use of computers, Cosoi points out the “dramatic increase in the volume and speed at which cyber-threats are being created.” In an online world where people have grown far too comfortable, users and their information have become highly vulnerable to hackers. While most people would be hesitant to discourse with a stranger in person, when people are online they tend to be much more outgoing. They feel more secure. However, it is quite the opposite. When people put their email addresses online, which is required by virtually all social media platforms, there is a 98% chance that they will receive some sort of spam (Cosoi). The content of these emails can be harmful to the owner’s computer and email account. For example, the intention of most spam is either to promote something, or to spread a computer virus. Many of these emails take the user to a website that releases a virus onto their computer that will attach to the hard drive and remain there. These viruses can be extremely harmful and difficult to remove.
“Sexting” is yet another issue that is bred within the confines of social media, especially among the teenage users. Inappropriate messages, photos, and even videos can be easily shared between social media users. 20% of teenagers have admitted to sending nude photos over the Internet (McBride). Many teenagers do not fully understand the extent of the repercussions that can be inflicted upon those who involve themselves in these situations. If students are caught doing this while in school, they can be suspended or even expelled if the case is serious enough. Many people even see jail time and are hit with felony pornography charges. Situations where this occurs between a legal adult and a younger teenager can also lead to felony charges. Ever since the creation of an application called “Snapchat,” people have grown exponentially more comfortable sending these photos. Snapchat allows users to send photos for 1-10 seconds, and at the end of the timer, the photo disappears forever. However, the recipients of these pictures can still save the photos, causing them to do just as much damage as any other sending of nude photos. Personally, I know of more than one situation where someone has taken a nearly nude photo that they received on Snapchat, and posted it on other forms of social media in order to embarrass the sender. Situations like this cause teens to experience stress that sometimes reaches the point of depression.
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The level of distraction due to social media is astounding. In July of 2012 alone, Americans spent a total of 121.1 billion minutes on social networking sites (ProCon.org). That is equivalent to 230,251 years of time spent looking at other people’s wedding pictures, or reading about how much your cousin hates his new job, or learning what that guy you met at that party that one time had for breakfast this morning. Social media is a massive distraction to its avid users, but its addictiveness causes millions of people around the world to be sucked into its atmosphere. For example, students who heavily use social media have been shown to have lower grades in school than those who do not. Students who participate in social media have an average GPA of 3.06, while students who do not have an average GPA of 3.82 (ProCon.org). Also, social media plays a huge part in distracting people in their places of work. Spending only 30 minutes a day on social media at work costs a 50-person company 6,500 hours of productivity a year. Next time you walk through a crowded area, look around you and observe the number of people whose faces are buried in their cellphones. Yes, it is absurd to make the claim that every single one of those people are on Facebook, but it is a more than fair assumption to say that a vast majority of them are engaged in some sort of social media. The fact that 121.1 billion minutes were spent on social media in one month supports this assumption.
In the younger generation, social media can do even more damage. Due to the fact that people these days are becoming exposed to it at such a young age, this excessive use of the technology is going on while kids’ brains and social skills are still in development. Deborah McBride, a Nurse Practitioner and writer for Journal of Pediatric Nursing believes that “children and adolescents are at risk as they navigate and experiment with social media.” She states that for most teens, social media is the primary means of interaction (McBride). Growing up relying on social media and becoming accustomed to communicating with people mainly over the internet can take a huge toll on a child’s people skills. If they become too used to getting to know people by use of the internet, it could take away a lot of their ability to get to know people in real life.
Another threat of social media is what’s known as “cyberbullying.” Cyberbullying is the use of the internet to threaten or bully another person. 19% of teenagers claim to have been the victims of cyberbullying at some point in their lives, and 38% know someone who has been (McBride). The extreme ease of communication using today’s social media networks is a prime reason for why this problem has become so prominent. Cyberbullying can lead to high levels of stress, depression, and in many cases even suicide. A main reason for this is that people are much braver behind a computer screen than they are in real life. Things that are said via the internet often lead to clique forming and physical confrontation in the real world.
Although I am trying to stress the negatives of social media, I am fully aware that there is indeed another side to the argument: the positives. Sara Shinton, a writer for Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry, believes that “social media has real value and enables [her] to achieve more than [she] could through conventional dissemination alone.” She says that it allows users to portray themselves more fully and accurately, and enables them to paint a picture of their true personalities for the whole world to see (Shinton). Social media serves as an excellent means of communication between people, businesses, and even the government. It provides a great way for people to share information with each other quickly and easily. Businesses can advertise job openings, along with promotions and information about their companies via social media as well. It even helps the economy by generating thousands of jobs for people who can work for these social networking organizations, and is frequently used as a news source. However, despite all of the good things that can come from social media, the bad things are not to be overlooked.
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